Prosecutors Confident of Enough Evidence

The Attorney General’s Office says it has enough evidence to name Communications and Information Minister Johnny G. Plate a graft suspect. They will shortly trace the flow of funds in the corruption case involving Johnny

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

Minister of Communication and Informatics Johnny G Plate (center) wearing a special vest after an examination at the Attorney General's Office Building, Jakarta, Wednesday (17/5/2023).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) is confident that it has secured enough evidence to name Communications and Information Minister Johnny G. Plate as a suspect in the corruption case surrounding the construction of 4G base transceiver stations (BTS) and supporting infrastructure packages 1-5 by the ministry’s Telecommunications and Information Accessibility Agency (Bakti). The AGO will trace the flow of funds and assets in the case, which is estimated to have cost the state up to Rp 8 trillion in losses.

Johnny was questioned at the AGO on Wednesday (17/5/2023). He was detained after he was named as a suspect in the alleged corruption case involving construction of 4G base transceiver stations (BTS) and supporting infrastructure packages 1-5 from 2020 to 2022.

Bakti manages the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) amounting to 1.25 percent of the gross revenue of telecommunications network operators to build telecommunications infrastructure in remote, outermost and underdeveloped areas (Kompas.id, 8/11/2022).

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“We must pay close attention to this case. We recall that Rp 10 trillion in funding was rolled out for this project and the state losses amount to Rp 8 trillion. This is no ordinary crime,” Kuntadi, the director of investigations for the junior attorney general for special crimes (Jampidsus), saidon Wednesday.

According to Kuntadi, Johnny was questioned for the third time. Investigators concluded that the minister was involved in the graft, namely as a budget manager who had authority over spending and budgetary oversight at his ministry. “Of course, as a user of the budget and as a minister,” he said.

This is no ordinary crime.

Investigators therefore named Johnny, who was previously a witness, as a suspect at the AGO wing of the Salemba State Detention Center. Johnny was charged with Article 2 and Article 3 of the Law on Corruption Eradication in conjunction with Article 55, Paragraph (1) of volume 1 of the Criminal Code.

At the same time, investigators searched the communications minister’s official residence and his office at the ministry. Investigators are still exploring the possibility that Johnny had received money through the incurrence of state losses. “The focus of uncovering the corruption is of course to trace the assets, which we have done long before now. But of course, it is still ongoing,” he said.

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

The Attorney General's Office gave a statement to the media after the detention of the Minister of Communication and Information Johnny G Plate at the Attorney General's Office Building, Jakarta, Wednesday (17/5/2023).

Evidence

Ketut Sumedana, head of the AGO’s legal information center, said when contacted on Thursday (18/5) that according to the calculations of the Development Finance Comptroller, the case had incurred Rp 8.032 trillion in losses to the state. “People are welcome to believe that this [investigation] is because of the political year. We are still working and are concerned only with enforcing the law,” he said.

According to Ketut, the Communications and Information Ministry had been searched several times. In the final search, the AGO confiscated documents, letters and electronic evidence to reinforce the evidence it had previously found.

The AGO has charged five people so far. They are: Bakti president director Anang Achmad Latif, PT Mora Telematika Indonesia president director Galumbang Menak Simanjuntak, University of Indonesia human development expert Yohan Suryanto, PT Huawei Investment account director Mukti Ali and PT Solitech Media Sinergy commissioner Irwan Hermawan.

We are still working and are concerned only with enforcing the law.

No intervention

Once Johnny, who is also secretary-general of the NasDem Party, was named as a suspect, NasDem chairman Surya Paloh held a meeting with party officials on Wednesday. “I hope that talk of how this cannot be separated from political intervention is not true. This cannot be separated from the intervention of power, nor can it be true. If it is true, perhaps natural law will confront it,” Paloh said after the meeting.

He expressed concern and disappointment that Johnny had been named as a suspect. His status as a suspect, however, had not changed the party’s attitude in respecting the legal process. Moreover, the presumption of innocence still held in this case. Paloh had appointed the party’s deputy secretary-general to step in for Johnny as acting secretary-general.

As for shuffling the Indonesia Onwards Cabinet after Johnny was named as a suspect, Paloh said he would leave this to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, as it was the President’s prerogative.

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NasDem’s presumptive nominee Anies Baswedan, the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) also met with the NasDem central executive board on Wednesday night. Anies expressed his hope that Johnny being named as a suspect was separate from NasDem’s political stance. NasDem, which was initially part of the Indonesia Unity Cabinet, now had a different political view.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said the BTS corruption case had been handled carefully over a long time. “I know this case is being investigated thoroughly because it is always overrun with accusations of politicization. The slightest slip-up can be mistaken for politicization of the law during a political year. If it wasn’t sure that at least two pieces of evidence were sufficient, the AGO would not have named anyone as a suspect,” he said in a written statement on Wednesday night.

He added that if there were already two strong pieces of evidence but the legal process was delayed for political conduciveness, this would be against the law.

“Just trust and wait for the judicial process in the case involving Pak [Mr.] Johnny. As the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister, I will continue to watch and monitor it,” he said. (DEA/NAD/WKM/INA/SYA/PDS/Z17)

This article was translated by Kesya Adhalia.